Needled felt flooring

ABSTRACT

NEEDLED FELT FLOORING, WITH A VELOUR-LIKE SURFACE, COMPRISING A LAYER OF STRIP MATERIAL DISPOSED OVER A FIBROUS NEEDLED SHEET, SAID STRIP MATERIAL HAVING A LAYER OF A SECOND FIBROUS SHEET DISPOSED THEREOVER, THE FIBERS OF WHICH PASS THROUGH THE STRIP MATERIAL AND THE NEEDLED FIBROUS SHEET DISPOSED THEREBENEATH, FORMING A PILE SURFACE OF SINGLE FIBERS OF EQUAL LENGTH; A METHOD OF PREPARING A NEEDLED FELT FLOORING IS ALSO DISCLOSED.   D R A W I N G

July 2, 1974 A. GRABER ETAI- 3,32273 NEEDLED FELT FLOORING Filed Deo. 29, 1972 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 July-'2, 1974 A. GRABER ET AL' NEEDLED FELT FLOORING Filed-Dec.

2 Sheets-Sheet 3 H mvg/xml.. OZSQmwZ United I'States Patent Office 3,822,173 NEEDLED FELT FLOORING Adolf Graber and Bohuslav Tecl, Weinheim, Germany,

assiguors to Firma Carl Freudenberg, Hohnerweg, Gerany Filed Dec. 29, 1972, Ser. No. 319,832 Claims priority, application Germany, Jan. 14, 1972, P 22 01 612.2 Int. Cl. D03d 27/00; D04h 11/00 U.S. Cl. 161-62 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Needled felt fiooring, with a velour-like surface, comprising a layer of strip material disposed over a fibrous needled sheet, said strip material having a layer of a second fibrous sheet disposed thereover, the fibers of which pass through the strip material and the needled fibrous sheet disposed therebeneath, forming a pile surface of single fibers of equal length; a method of preparing a needled felt flooring which comprises the steps of:

1. Disposing a layer of strip material over a needled fibrous sheet;

2. Disposing over said strip material a second fibrous sheet;

3. Needling said second fibrous sheet but maintaining the barbs of the needles in out-ofaction relationship with said strip material and disposing fibers from said second fibrous sheet through said strip material; and

4. Raising and shearing the so-formed laminate from the bottom side whereby a pile of equal length is formed consisting of bers of the first and second fibrous sheets.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention This invention relates to a new needled felt fiooring and to a method of preparing the same. More particularly, this invention relates to a needled felt flooring having a downy surface. This invention is particularly directed to a method of forming such a needled felt flooring employing strip material disposed between two layers of needled material, the fibers from one layer passing through said strip material and mingling amongst the fibers from another layer.

Discussion of the Prior Art Felt fiooring has heretofore been provided. These felt fioorings have comprised sheets of fibers, which sheets have been needled and thereafter been impregnated with a binder. However, the fioorings which have heretofore been provided have been rough and hard. It has become desirable therefore, to provide a fiooring material which is not rough and hard and which has a downy surface. Moreover, it has become desirable to provide a needled felt flooring of improved resiliency, less resistant to being walked upon. The natural is to provide a flooring which is less tiring to the feet.

It is also desirable to provide a needled felt fiooring of individual layers of fibrous material adhered together by use of a binder wherein fibers comprising a middle layer are not disposed toward the outer layer of fibrous material.

3,822,173 Patented July 2, 1974 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Broadly, this invention contemplates a needled felt flooring comprising a layer of strip material disposed over a fibrous needled sheet, said strip material having a layer of a second fibrous sheet disposed thereover the fibers of which pass through said strip material and through at least a portion of the needled fibrous sheet disposed therebeneath. Generally speaking, the needled fibrous sheets of the present invention are non-woven fibrous sheets and can be made of any suitable natural or synthetic fiber. This invention further contemplates a method of preparing needled felt flooring which comprises the steps of:

1. Disposing a layer of strip material over a needled fibrous sheet;

2. Disposing over said strip material a second fibrous sheet; and

3. Needling said second fibrous sheet but maintaining the barbs of the needles in out-of-action relationship with such strip material and disposing fibers from said second fibrous sheet through said strip material.

In a preferred embodiment of the method of this invention after the fibers from the second fibrous sheet have been disposed through said strip material to intermingle with the bers from the first-mentioned preneedled fibrous sheet, and fibers from the preneedled fibrous sheet and the post-fibrous sheet are raised. Thereafter the so-formed needled felt flooring is impregnated on the unraised side.

rIhe materials which can be used in the present invention are varied. The fibers, themselves, are generally short staple length fibers having a staple length between 40 and mm., preferably between 60 and 90 mm. Generally speaking, the thickness of the sheet will be between 1 and 5 mm., preferably between 2 and 4 mm.

The fibers of the sheets can be of the following: wool, cotton, rayon, nylon 6, nylon 6/6, polyester, especially polyesters derived from terephthalic acid, or its isomers or their derivatives, polyacrylonitrle, polyolefin especially polyalphaolefin and most preferably polypropylene.

The strip material employed in the present invention is preferably made of a woven material the fibers of which can be of any of the above-mentioned, preferably polypropylene. Generally speaking, the strip material will have a thickness between 0.05 and 0.2 mm., preferably between 0.10 and 0.15 mm. It can be woven in any one of the standard weaves such as the plain weave shown in FIG. 2 below.

In accordance with the method of the present invention the felt flooring is prepared by impregnating the layers of fibrous material after the fibers of the second needled layer have passed through the strip material to be disposed among the fibers of the first or preneedled fibrous material and/or after raising and shearing the laminate. Generally speaking the following impregnating agents can be used when the same are in a liquid mating; butadiene-nitrileacrylic, styrolene-butadiene, polyacrylonitrle, polyvinyl acetate, gum elastic.

These binders can be used in a construction between 20 and 40 weight percent, preferably between 25 and 35 weight percent. Liquid solvents or diluents which can be used together with such binders include: water, alcohol.

Most desirably the binder is applied in the form of liquid dispersion wherein there is formed a foam which contains between 0.42 and 0.51 parts per liquid per part of air, preferably between 0.46 and 0.48 parts of liquid per part of air. The impregnating is carried out by disposing the impregnating agent on the unraised side of the layers of the felt fiooring being prepared. The so-impregnated fibrous material passes through a pair of rollers. Suitably metallic rollers which are spaced about the spacing of these rollers is dependent to some extent upon the width of the fiooring being prepared. Generally speaking, they are between and 15 mm. apart.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The present invention can be more readily understood and appreciated when reference is made to the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a preneedled fibrous sheet employed as a first layer pursuant to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of a woven fibrous strip material preferably composed of a 3 mm. wide polypropylene strips, tightly interlaced to define a compact structure. (Reference is made to Testil Industry 7l, 1, 1969, p. 17.)

FIG. 3 shows a side elevation of a double fibrous structure made by disposing the woven strip material of FIG. 2 over the preneedled non-woven sheet material of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a side elevation after a non-woven sheet material is disposed over the woven strip material of FIG. 2, this latter layer being the one which is subsequently needled to form small fibrous tufts which are drawn through the strip material to mingle with the fibers of the preneedled layer, itself the subject of FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 shows the barbs of the needles which have to be filled completely with fibers of the uppermost nonwoven material, since, otherwise, the strip fabric is damaged.

'FIG. 7 shows the filling of the barbs with fibers of the uppermost non-woven layer so that the sharp edges of the barbs do not come in contact with the strips.

FIG. 8 is a side elevation showing the disposition of fibers of the uppermost layer which is preneedled being disposed through the strip material of FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a ow scheme of the process by which the needled felt fiooring of the present invention is prepared.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings a fabric of non-woven fibers 2 is passed through a needling frame 4 through a pair of rollers 6, beneath a guide roller 8 and a second pair of rollers 10. As it passes over roller 10 a second fabric of woven fibers is disposed thereover, that fabric being identified by reference numeral 12. Substantially simultaneously therewith a second layer 14 of non-woven fibers emanating from a carding machine 16 is disposed over fabric 12 and needled in a second needling frame 20. This disposed fibers 22 of fabric 14 through fabric 12 to intermingle with the fibers of fabric 2. The composite of the layers is withdrawn and taken up on package 24. It will be noticed that the fabric 14 is thicker than fabric 2 so that the resultant production has a pile surface.

It should be stated that the needling which takes place in needling frame is such that the needles pass through fabric 14 but their barbs do not touch fabric 12. This is important because if they do touch fabric 12 the fibers from fabric 12 are apt to be disposed amongst the fibers 22. If they are of a different color a recoloring operation wtih ensuing cost will be necessary.

Referring to FIG. 9, the composite of the fibers is subsequently withdrawn from package 24 and passes through guide rollers 26, through a raising roller 28, and a second raising roller 30 with the assistance of guidance rollers 32, 34, 36 and 38. Thereafter they may be cut through use of a cutter at 40 whereby the raised pile is cut off to, for instance, half of its initial dimension. The fabric continues travelling through rollers 42 and 44 and is taken up on package 46.

Subsequently it is withdrawn from package 46 and passes through the nip of the opposed rollers such as rollers 50 and 52. Here the unraised side of the felt flooring is imbinder, and under liquid diluent formed into a foamy dispersion. The nip of the rollers can measure 3 mm. at the narrowest point. The impregnant travels downwardly 4 into the felt fiooring until it reaches the strip material or fabric 12.

The felt fiooring is taken up on a conveyor 54 and passes into a drying chamber 56 which it is dried. After, it is wound upon package 60 in its finished state.

In order to more fully illustrate the nature of the invention and the means of producing the same, the following example is set forth; from a carding machine a nonwoven fibrous sheet made of polypropylene fibers having a weight of 300 grams per square meter, a denier of about 17 and composed of fibers of average staple length of 60 mm., the sheet was passed through a pair of rollers and it was disposed thereover a woven fabric of polypropylene strips weighing grams per square meter. Over that woven layer a rather heavy fleece of polypropylene fibers in sheet form was disposed. It weighed 400 grams per square meter and was composed of polyproylene fibers of 17 denier, 60 mm. long staple fibers. The three superimposed ffeeces are passed under a needling frame and the foremost layer was needled without the barbs of needles catching the fibers of the middle layer. They were thereafter taken up on a roller.

The triple fiber structure was subsequently unwound from the roller and passed through a pair of raising rollers where the fibers from the uppermost layer now disposed throughout the middle layer were raised. The resulting pile was cut to half of its original dimension and taken up on a second roller. It was thereafter taken off of the roller and passed through an impregnation step by passing it through the nip of opposed metallic rollers disposed a distance of 3 mm. apart. Here they were treated with a 45 percent liquid dispersion of butadiene-nitrile-acrylic in a liquid made into the form of a foam by passing it through an Oakes mixer. The foam so obtained had about three parts of liquid per part of air. The amount of binder or impregnant added to the side opposite the pile was regulated so that the binder penetrated only down to the stripmaterial or middle layer and the downy side remained free of binder. The entire structure was then passed through a drier maintained at a temperature of about C. wherein the binder was dried. The material was then taken up on a third roller in finished form.

What is claimed is:

1. Needled felt fiooring comprising a layer of strip material disposed over a fibrous needled sheet, Said strip vmaterial having a layer of a second fibrous sheet disposed thereover, the fibers of which pass through said strip material and the needled fibrous sheet disposed therebeneath, forming a pile surface of signle fibers of equal length.

2. A needled felt fiooring according to Claim 1, wherein the flooring contains an impregnant.

3. A needled felt fiooring according to Claim 2, wherein said impregnant is a butadiene-nitrile-acrylic impregnant.

4. A needled felt fiooring according to Claim 2, wherein the layer of strip material is composed of polypropylene fibers having a denier of 17 and a weight in sheet form of 300 g./m.2.

5. A needled felt fiooring according to Claim 2, wherein the impregnant penetrates only to the strip material.

6. A method of preparing a needled felt flooring which comprises the steps of:

1. disposing a layer of strip material over a fibrous sheet;

2. disposing over said strip material a second fibrous sheet;

3. needling said second fibrous sheet but maintaining the barbs of the needles in out-of-action relationship with said strip material and disposing fibers from said second fibrous sheet through said strip material; and

4. raising and shearing of the laminate from the bottom side whereby a pile of equal length is formed consisting of single fibers of the first and second fibrous sheets.

7. A method of preparing a needled felt flooring according to Claim 6, wherein the needled sheet is impregnated with a binder.

8. A method according to Claim 7, wherein said binder comprises an impregnant of butadiene-nitrile-acrylic` 9. A method according to Claim 8, wherein the preneedled sheet is treated with a 45% liquid dispersion of binder in which there are three parts of liquid per part air.

10. A method according to Claim 9, wherein impregnation is done by passing the layers of iibrous material between two metallic rollers spaced 3 mm. apart and impregnant is placed upon the side opposite the pile surface.

11. A method according to Claim 6, wherein said needled brous sheets are made of synthetic staple fibers.

12. A method according to Claim 7, wherein the impregnant is thereafter dried.

13. A felt ooring according to Claim 2, wherein said 6 brous needled sheet and said second fibrous sheet are nonwoven sheets, said strip material is a woven sheet and said second ibrous sheet weights more than said fibrous needled sheet.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,857,281 5/1932 Johnson 161--154 2,294,684 9/1942` Nachrnan, Jr. 161-154 2,373,033 4/1945 Kopplin 161-154 3,154,462 10/1964 Smith 161-154 3,191,257 6/1965 Smith 161-154 3,523,059 `8/1970 Coates ll-154 3,570,085 3/1971 Heinemann 161-72 WILLIAM I. VAN BALEN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R.

Freud. 316

gfggf' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE l @EKTFICATE OF CORRECTION T l l d 3,822,173 Dated ,my 2, 1974 lvwfzmwr) Adolf: Graber and Bohuelav Tecl Kt is certifiei that error appearsfin the aboye-identified patent.' End that said Lette-rs Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Colunm 3', after line 72 (ending, with "im-" Insert ,--pregnated with an mpregnating agent comprising a Column 4., line +9 "Egnle" should be "single" Column 6,. line 3 "weightasf' should be "weighs" signed and sealed this 29th day of octber 1974.

'(SEAL) Attest:

C. MARSHALL DANN Commissioner of Patents MCCOY Ml. GIBSON JR. Attestng Officer 

